C'mon Skinny Love (Just Last the Year)
by MaliceInWonderland23
Summary: Because when you are ripped away from your love and tossed back into a place you haven't called home in a while, it hurts. {Oneshot}


Title: C'mon Skinny Love (Just Last the Year)

Rating: Teen/PG-13

Parings: None

Fandoms: Once Upon a Time

Relationship: Captain Hook/Emma Swan

Characters: Captain Hook/Killian Jones, Emma Swan

Takes Place: Somewhere between season 3A and 3B; then in season 3B

Summary: Because when you are ripped away from your love and tossed back into a place you haven't called home in a while, it hurts. {Oneshot}

*_inspired by a buzzfeed quiz; complete drabble, unapologetically short_

* * *

_"__Tell my love to wreck it all,  
Cut out all the ropes and let me fall,_

_And I told you to be patient,  
And I told you to be fine,  
And I told you to be balanced,  
And I told you to be kind,"_

-Bon Iver, "Skinny Love"

* * *

Home was a complicated concept for Killian Jones. In anyone else's life, home was probably a place. And it was for him too, briefly.

Maybe it was the ocean, where he felt as though he belonged. Maybe, it was the Enchanted Forest where he grew up, or Neverland, where he spent three-hundred years in and knew all about (or as much as one could).

Deep down though, Killian Jones knew that his home was where his love resided. His home was the blond hair that hung around her shoulders and her eyes (so lost, orphaned, like his). His home wasn't his ship, or the journey it represented. It was the destination. And the destination was _her_.

He gazed out over the sea, wishing that some miracle could bring them back together. A wave crashed against his ship, rocking it a little.

He closed his eyes and thought to himself. Her family was somewhere and _gods_, why wasn't he helping them? Another wave hit the ship, but this time, saltwater sprayed into his eyes. Like a wake-up call.

Killian sailed along the shore into every port in search of a way to reach her with no luck.

"Captain, this is the fifteenth time we've docked in the past three months," Smee informed him.

"Your point is?"

"Well…I just wanted, to, well, tell you."

"You wanted to tell me?"

He knew that really, Smee meant to ask, _Why?_ But he doesn't ask, so that pirate doesn't answer.

He looked back out over the ocean, bracing himself on the edge of his ship. The Jolly Roger's beautiful.

This ship had been with him through everything. This ship had been his home, but he would give up it and anything on it to get back to her. Even if she wouldn't remember. Even if all she saw was a stranger, he would find a way back to her.

She was so much to him and she wouldn't even know who he was.

A broken man, an honorable man, a man that cared about her for once in her life. He was the hero for the first time since Liam died. She made him that.

She had changed him, morphed him from this vicious pirate and turned him into someone that felt something, as Neal did to her, and she left him, but not because she chose to.

He was so hopelessly in love that even his crew was worried.

The last time he loved was with Milah, and when she left him, the pain didn't even compare to what he felt with Emma. Milah was resting peacefully, he could avenge her. Emma was somewhere else with no idea who she was, with no idea how many people cared, and bloody hell, he wanted to punish someone for it, even though nobody was at fault (well, besides Pan, and Pan was dead already) because it was either they stay together in death or are separated in life.

So he left her, he sailed away and let that purple haze overcome him. Killian let the curse surround him, like a fog that pricked his skin (like needles that were too small to avoid) and devoured him.

After a year of mourning, that bird (thank gods for that bird) told him to go find her, to go save her, and he knew he couldn't let the purple overcome him twice.

He traded his ship for a bean. He traded his old home for his second chance, left his old life, jumped through, and headed to find Emma.

And she bloody slapped him.

After all they had been through, she slapped him and slammed the door.

However, Killian Jones was nothing if not persistent.

Having wandered around New York during the night, he spotted her on her way to work. Convincing didn't prove successful, but he did end up with shelter for the night (though it was a prison).

The next day was an all-or-nothing deal. He put all his cards on the table, offered all his best arguments, and _finally, _it worked. She was beauty and grace; she was _life_ when she remembered.

He was without a ship, without a family, without a crew, but he had his love and that was all that mattered.

{***}

Home for Emma was whichever lousy apartment her foster family of the day was residing in. Then, it was her car, Boston, her car again, Mary-Margaret's apartment, and then, just Storybrooke in itself. Home was a place she felt safe.

Even though the town itself was extremely vulnerable (to anything, really; Witches, giants, evil queens) it was safe from the outside world, the world that did more damage to Emma than anything magical.

Home for Emma was family. Home was the cinnamon that everybody put on their hot chocolate (save for David), it was Henry convincing her that she could, it was David threatening to punch Hook (although she made it quite clear that _no_, she didn't need Hook punched and she could take care of herself), or Ruby trying to get her to admit her feelings for Hook.

Hook, who she had been avoiding talking to because that _look_ he gave her was too much, his eyes, abandoned and desperate, were too much.

And then when she finally began to accept that she cared for him, Zelena cursed his lips and she was back to square one. She could run back to Neal (but the thing with that was how he had gone from Tamara to her, how easily he replaced his women) or she could fight for him.

Unfortunately for her, Neal died. It was somewhat satisfying to see Hook mourn, not sadistically, but because he cared about the man and wasn't going to use his death as a way to take Emma for himself.

When Zelena was defeated and they were sucked back in time, it was a lot easier to realize what she had to loose sitting on the floor of a prison cell. And then watching her mom burn.

It was a lot easier to see how much people change when she had to throw herself at Hook, and he didn't even fight to protect her honor or when Regina almost killed her.

It was a lot easier to see how many people she had to go back to.

It was a lot easier to see what she needed to fight for.

* * *

**A/N: Unbeta'd. ****Review please. Even if you hated it, tell me why. **


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